Spieth is backed to banish his demons

FORMER US Open champion Curtis Strange believes Jordan Spieth will be able to exorcise the demons of last year’s dramatic collapse when he seeks a second green jacket at Augusta National.

Defending champion Spieth held a five-shot lead with nine holes to play in 2016 and looked certain to become only the fourth player, after Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods, to win backto-back Masters titles.

However, after dropping shots on the 10th and 11th, Spieth hit two balls into Rae’s Creek on the parthree 12th and ran up a quadruple-bogey seven, with Danny Willett taking full advantage with a closing 67 to win by three shots.

Spieth himself admits “it will be nice once this year’s finished” so he does not have to face more questions on the subject.

Strange, though, is confident the 23-year-old will be able to rise to the occasion in an event where he has been second, first and second in three starts.

Strange said: “I think he’s such a cerebral player, he’s such a solid player, and even if he gets up with a one-shot lead next Sunday, and the pin is in the same position, he’ll learn from what he did last year and he’ll hit the proper shot.

“And when do we ever learn? On mistakes we made. When we screw up. So I think that there’s nothing wrong with remembering when you screwed up the year before or a couple of years before, because you learn from that.

“You say, I’m not going to do that again. If you have to pitch it from the same position again, whatever it is, you learn from it and you don’t do it again.”

Jordan Spieth helps 2016 Masters champion Danny Willett, of England, put on his green jacket